Pet Urn Plans and specs

Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
PTownSubbie

PTownSubbie

Member
Joined
May 15, 2009
Messages
2,229
Location
Chesapeake, VA
It has been a rough month around here. We have lost both our beloved cats (Garfield and Cindy) to old age within a month of each other. The last one just passed this evening and was extremely rapid. It only seemed like just a week ago she was running around here like a kitten.

My 19 year old daughter is taking it pretty hard so we have decided to have Garfield cremated and plan to do the same with Cindy. I am hoping to build an urn for them.

Has anyone done this for their animals? I am hoping for some pointers for a newbie turner? I have decent woodworking skills and plenty of tools but have not done a hollow form yet and have only turned a couple of bowls so far. I am thinking something segmented?

There has to be some specs as to how these are built. Any information would be useful and greatly appreciated.
 
Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
Fred, I'm sorry to hear about your pets.

I don't know of any plans but I would recomend Mike Mahoney's DVD "Hollow Forms and Urns". There is a lot of useful information there.

Normally an urn would have a threaded lid, made either using thread chasing tools or with a male/female threaded PVC insert. However, as you will have the ashes on hand there is no reason you couldn't make a lidded hollow form, place the ashes inside and then just glue the lid in place. As with any box, you would want to use dry wood so that the lid opening doesn't get distorted.
 
Sorry for your loss... we lost a kitten last year to the neighborhood pit bull... the wife was upset for about a week..

I don't have exact specs, but think about the size of your cats, then realize that most of the body weight will be water weight... after the cremation, the volume of ash left will be relatively small.

This is a lidded box I turned recently... LOML keeps telling everyone it would make a great pet urn... it's about 9 inches by 4 3/4 inches diameter.
 

Attachments

  • 28-751.JPG
    28-751.JPG
    45.5 KB · Views: 215
I forgot to mention that you need to allow roughly a cubic inch per pound of live body mass.

There's not really an easy way to say that is there? Sorry.
 
sorry for your loss..it's truly a hard thing to go thru...when you feel able to care for a new cat, there are thousands in shelters needing a new home..(I am unabashedly a rescue person) we have 5 rescued animals and hope others will help those who cannot help themselves...now as to your container issue...segmenting for a newbie would be easiest..make a container and a lid..then epoxy the lid in...simple as I can think of at this time..can you make a bowl? Make one & a lid for it....I have sold many things as urns for people and pets..even shaker oval boxes..any good, pretty container will work
 
Don't have any advice on the urn, but wanted to say sorry for you loss. Our dog died last week, so I can sympathize with you.
 
sorry for your loss. I, like Mickr, am a resuce person. there are lots of animals that need a loving home. and finding a new pet, won't take the place of Cindy and Garfield, but will fill that empty feeling.
As for the Urn, yes, do a google search for Mike Mahoney, he has done some awsome work and the dvd is extremely helpful. Our local turning club has one in the libarary.
 
Thanks everyone for the words of advice. We too are a rescue family. My wife runs Chinese Shar Pei rescue and maintains the site for Chinese Shar Pei rescue network. We have rescue dogs come through the house all the time on a foster basis until they can find permanent homes. I have 3 dogs (2 permanent and 1 foster) right now. The cats were the permanent factor that they were always able to keep since they didn't like the rotation of the dogs when they were little. They wanted to keep them all!! I can't count the number of foster dogs that have come through the house in the past 18 years.

I never thought of some of the things you guys said about how to make the urn. I don't think it will be too extreme but time will tell. I have the bag that contains the ashes so I should be able to determine dimensions. I didn't think about epoxy to seal the inside but makes sense. Also, use of PVC for the threaded top. I think I can do this.

If you are interested, check out the Shar Pei Rescue site:
www.sharpeirescuenetwork.org

There is a ton of good information on there if you have thought about animals and temperments.

Fred
 
not to hijack the thread..but I always try in especially this endeavor, to get the word out often..Last time I visited Petfinder.com there were 345,000 dogs listed..that's just one site! How many never make it to a site like this...if people truly knew the atrocious #'s of pets in pounds,rescues, and living in the street, we'd hopefully get more adoptions..I feel many days as though I'm trying to empty the oceans with a spoon...Thanks PT for your work with the rescues & Mark too, and anyone on the site that has adopted ...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom